Re:Dahlgren Engraver Z axis air actuation

I do not have a breakout board. The parallel cable goes straight from PC to driver board.
I am using the HobbyCNC EZ Driver kit.
www.hobbycnc.com/products/hobbycnc-ez-driver-board-kit/

I do have a working stepper motor on z-axis, what I would like to do is hook up solenoid trigger for z-air actuation there instead of stepper motor.
Eventually I plan on motorizing z-axis, but for know I just want to use what is already there on engraver (air z tool up/down)

~*Brian

Looks like your driver board does not use all of the pins from the parallel port. You could break out one that is not used and with a small opto circuit that could pull in your 24v relay. Another option if you have a spare pci slot is to just plug in another parallel port for $10 and have several more I/O available to use. In any case you still need the electronics to bridge the gap between the parallel port and your relay. I'm not good with that so perhaps someone else can show you a simple circuit for that or some google searching might find what you can do with some Radio Shack parts to get it going.

John

Hello John.
I am not experienced in the electronics hookup either.
Seems to me I could just hook the 5v signal from PP pin directly to my relay??

Anybody else out there can help me with a circuit???

~*Brian

par port will probably not be able to drive relay.
I will send suggestion in am

Rick G

Brian,

I think you could use a C37 relay board and a power supply such as a A3 both from cnc4pc.
www.cnc4pc.com/Store/osc/

If there is a spot where you can safely connect to an output pin from the parallel port on the board you can use that as the signal to the relay board.

If not as John said just add a second parallel port card and use that to control the c37 to control your 5 volt relay.

Rick G

The C47 relay can take loads of up to 10 amps 28vdc or 125VAC and 6 amps at 220VAC so you would not need another relay to turn your pneumatic solenoid on.

There is a lot of info on parallel ports here

www.epanorama.net/circuits/parallel_output.html

John